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from destruction during the cold
wave and the smoke had a lot
to do with the saving.
The actual process is called
"smudging." When asked what
he meant by smudging a fruit
grower once replied:
"It means literally heating all
outdoors."
The heating is accomplished
with small sheet iron box-shaped
furnaces or braziers that are
called smudge pots. Crude oil and
coal are both used in these pots,
but most of them burn oil, be
cause it is cheaper, in California
at least.
The pots are set in rows- in the
orchards and the coal or oil is
. lighted. This causes a smoke
which gradually forms a blanket
that hangs over the trees. The
cold upper air has difficulty in
penetrating this blanket.
It was. once thought that any
thing that would create smoke
would do the work. This has since
been disproved, and it is now the
endeavor of the smudging crew
to get a combination of heat and
smoke. The heat is held under
the smoke blanket and the
blanket of smoke is held up by the
heat.
A difference of 15 degrees can
be maintained by this process.
That is, a difference of 15 degrees
between tfce temperature at the
trees and that of the air outside
the orchard. At one place in Col
orado where the smudge pots
were used it was found that while
the outside temperature was 15
degrees above zero, sufficient to
freeze every tree, the thermome
ter at the tree itself showed 32 de
grees. In some fruit sections a regular
system of alarm bells for frost
have been set up. By means of a
thermostat, a device made of
metal very sensitive to different
degrees of heat or cold, and elec
tric wiring run to bells in various
sections, as soon as the tempera
ture reaches the danger point the
bells are rung and every man in
the neighborhood turns out to
start the smudge pots.
It is estimated that it costs
from 5 cents per tree and upward
to utilize smudge pots, but this is
a very profitable investment for
growers whose orchards pay
them in excess of $50 per acre,
and there are few people in the
fruit business who are not getting
much-more than that.
Indigestible Topics.
Eight or nine women, assem
bled at luncheon, were discussing
ailments and operations as eight
or nine, or one or two, or sixty or
seventy women will. The talk
ran through angina pectoris, tor
pid liver, tuberculosis and kin
dred happy topics.
"I thought," commented the
guest of honor, "that I had been
invited to a luncheon and not an
organ recital."
o o
Takes Color Out. .
To take the color entirely out of
a cotton dress after it has become
somewhat faded, boil the dress in
cream of tartar water. A perfect
ly white dress results.